Aftermarket News

At the 2012 SEMA Show Awards Banquet, Michael Chapin and Eric Coomer sat down for dinner at the YEN member table. Focused on their respective ventures, the two like-minded gasoline junkies stayed in contact for another year and found several more overlapping likes and interests. Fast forward to 2014, when an opportunity arose to collaborate in a new business launch—RxSpeed.com—a search engine for aftermarket parts.

What kind of SEMA resources have you found to be valuable?

Chapin: Besides the obvious fact that we met while networking with YEN, Eric and I use SEMA’s market reports and resources to convey to the outside world the scale and dynamic of this marketplace. For most non-car people, it’s an industry that hides in plain sight. Few expect to hear that 24 million Americans spend $33 billion annually. The market segmentation reports draw clear lines in the sand to help people understand who buys parts for necessity and who buys them for fun.

Coomer: The background and education SEMA provides on the industry’s data revolution, and more specifically the SEMA Data Co-op, have by far been the most helpful in educating myself and others about the need for standardized product data. It wasn’t very long ago that every small business was told they needed a website in order to survive, and now in 2014, getting your products seen and sold online carries that same message. Clear business communication doesn’t end with conversation, but continues with every file and piece of data you exchange.

In the past, the creation of an Interest-Charge Domestic International Sales Corporation (IC-DISC) has allowed U.S. manufacturers from a number of industries to greatly reduce the amount of tax paid on their exports—and the automotive industry has been no exception. For example, tax specialist alliantgroup recently helped one company that produces LED lights for a variety of motor vehicles receive $235,600 in tax savings on their exports. Another company that creates fabrics and composites for automotive applications was eligible to receive $539,000 in tax dollars for its IC-DISC.

3M has challenged all graphics experts to showcase their talents using 3M Wrap Film Series 1080 and face off in the Wrap2Wrap Battle. Installers began competing in online knockout rounds in August, and two finalists will go head-to-head, Thursday, November 6, at the 2014 SEMA Show.

If you’re not registered to participate in the SEMA Ignited event, now is the time to get in. The event concept is simple. After four days behind closed doors in the Las Vegas Convention Center, visible only to industry professionals, participating cars and trucks from the SEMA Show will roll out on Friday, November 7, to assemble at one of the newest landmarks in the city, the High Roller observation wheel at the LINQ entertainment district. There, from 4:00 p.m.–10:00 p.m., consumers and the media will be able to experience the hottest cars, products and personalities from the SEMA Show and enjoy food and music in a culminating celebration. Participation in the event will be free of charge to SEMA exhibitors, attendees and consumers.

The Keys Are Collecting, Qualifying and Following Up According to a report entitled “2013 SEMA Show Research”—a post-Show survey of exhibitors and attendees—almost 90% of exhibitors at the 2013 SEMA Show said that they exhibit in order to generate leads and increase awareness of their companies. Slightly higher percentages said that those objectives were met at the 2013 Show.

Were you to park a ’14 Chevy Malibu next to a ’56 Bel Air and open the hoods of each, the contrast would be remarkable. The Malibu’s short, wide engine bay is so full of plastic covers, tubes, hoses, wires, bottles and other equipment that the car’s four-cylinder engine is barely visible—if at all. The Bel Air’s Turbo-Fire V8, on the other hand, stands out in the ’56 Chevy’s spacious engine compartment, covered in bright orange paint and hooked to a canister air cleaner, a couple of radiator hoses and little else. Ask any shadetree mechanic why he prefers to work on old collector cars over today’s computer- and emissions-controlled vehicles and the answer usually comes down to: “They were so much simpler then.”

Before It Was an Outlaw

Describe yourself in your own words.My name is Nicholas Gramelspacher, and I am vice president, sales and marketing, at Meyer Distributing, and a member of the SEMA Board of Directors. I have a wife, April, and son, Ajay.

What type of education do you have?I have a degree in business management.

Did you choose the aftermarket or did the aftermarket choose you?I chose the aftermarket-I was tinkering on and fixing up trucks in early high school and fell in love with it. We have a family business in the furniture industry, but I wanted to plow my own path to do what I love and love what I do: cars, trucks and Jeeps. That, along with working for a great company like Meyer, which has had tremendous growth, and having a hardworking team made it a great decision 16 years ago.

What has your career path looked like?I started with Meyer in the shipping department and worked there for about six months before moving into sales. We were a single location, 25,000-sq.-ft. company back then, selling about 40 lines.

For decades now, SEMA members have expressed concern about the aging of the automotive specialty segment and the number of young enthusiasts entering the marketplace and our workforce. Addressing those concerns, SEMA has developed a number of initiatives, many of which have matured and grown. There has been expansion of the SEMA Young Executive Network (YEN), now 1,300 strong; development of a robust student program that brings 500-plus automotive students to the SEMA Show each year; and substantial support of other productive youth-oriented automotive programs, such as Hot Rodders of Tomorrow.